Using all characters?

[alec]

As much as possible, I try to use all of the characters, since I'm a little paranoid about, say, a mission that requires you to split your party into sub-groups and stuff. I'm really worried that if that happens, some of my characters would be really under-leveled, so yeah, I try to use them all as much as I can.

 

[Shubito]

Basically I used the characters I liked the most :x Which was usually alot of characters.

In FF4 I always had to have Rosa, Cecil and Kain when possible though ;3 Had no real problem with any of the characters in the game.

I used everyone but Cyan for 6 really...

And for FF7 I didn't use Cait Sith, Yuffie, or Cid all that much :x I like them (Yuffie and Cid at least) And I mainly used Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Vincent.

FF8 Rinoa (Because she's a BEAST and almost never around.) But when she wasn't I'd use Quistis and Zell with Squall.

For FF10 Yuna, Lulu, and Auron. And I pretty much didn't like the entire rest of the cast tbh.

And for FF12 I used everyone as much as possible, but I nearly always used Balthier because well... He is the leading man... so...

 

[Clerkin]

The first time playing a game I usually pick my favorite character's and go through the story with them but I do stop to level up the other character's in case the party got split up and all the character's I don't use were put together and I wouldn't be fit to win a normal fight let alone a boss fight. When replaying a game I just go through with my favorite character's and level up the rest at the end of the game.

 

[Matseb2611]

What I do is similar to most people here. I do favour the favourites more, but I also do like to try everyone out. Once I've made up my mind, I have a few characters I use all the time, a few I substitute in a lot, and the last few I almost never use.
I also do agree that leading story characters have to be present in the party during critical story moments, because otherwise there is no emotion there. For example having Terra, Celes and Locke in FF6, or at least one of them.

I usually tend to prefer the pure physical damage dealers and almost always have them (Cloud and Cid from FFVII, Sabin and Cyan from FFVI, Steiner and Amarant from FFIX), and then black and white mages are important too (Vivi FFIX, Terra FFVI, etc).

In FFIV you don't have much of a choice, but right now I've reached the final part of the game and I think I've made up my mind about my final party - Cecil (because he's the leader and my favourite character), Kain (because his jump ability is useful), Yang (because he is pure muscle and loooads of health), Rosa (white mage), Rydia (black mage/summoner). So I pretty much have all the essential needs for a party in that.

And the other thing, if ethers and elixirs are scarce, I try not to have too many mages in the party. This mostly goes for earlier FF games where you have more than 3 party members in a party.

Lastly, I agree with those who said that parts of the game where you're required to use more than 1 party are really great, because I found myself really enjoying the Phoenix Cave and Kefka's Tower parts of FF6. It made it challenging in a very fun way and gave you a chance to use more than just 4 characters.

 

[Dishy]

I really try my best to use all characters equally, but I do tend to find myself gravitating towards certain match-ups, especially in games like VII, VIII and XII, where characters are completely unremarkable except for what you decide to do with them (and whether you like them or not).
I like games in which each character has specific uses - this helps me to ensure that no-one gets left behind. My prime example for this would be X, as each character specialises in defeating certain types of enemies.

FFVI was just way too much for me to manage, though, and although I began with good intentions there are just too many characters (having your party split up occasionally does help though). I found myself mainly using Celes, Edgar, Sabin and Shadow.

FFIX had specialised characters too but generally I found that in the parts of the game where you could choose your party any characters could make it through with little to no difficulty, so it all came down to playing style. Despite really liking both Freya and Amarant I never really used them much, and usually just used the original four party members instead (Zidane, Dagger, Vivi and Steiner).